K.C.’s great what-if: Should Gordon have been sent?

Updated 12:07 am, Saturday, November 1, 2014

The folks in Kansas City are so nice it’s ridiculous. Apparently barbecue sauce has a pleasantly mellowing effect.

So I was startled when I stepped to the Starbucks counter in the K.C. airport early Thursday afternoon.

The barista, a young man, looked up with pain and anguish on his face and greeted me with, “You gotta send him! He’s 90 feet away! You gotta send him!”

Had the barista mistaken me for Mike Jirschele? Jirschele is the Royals’ third-base coach. He gave Alex Gordon the stop sign in the ninth inning of World Series Game 7 with the Royals trailing 3-2. With two outs, Gordon singled to left-center, Gregor Blancomisplayed the ball and then left fielder Juan Perez literally kicked the ball.

Watching from the press box, I thought Gordon could have scored. Another writer told me he thought Gordon slowed down between second and third. If so — if Gordon assumed Perez would back up the play cleanly — that was an inexcusable and fatal blunder.

It was the Royals’ last golden chance, their last gasp at the end of a golden season, and it was a moment that Royals’ fans will never forget.

Photo: Matt Slocum / Associated Press

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Kansas City’s Alex Gordon gets ready to round third with two outs in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 2014 World Series. Gordon did not try to score, and the Giants won 3-2.

Kansas City’s Alex Gordon gets ready to round third with two outs in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 2014 World Series. Gordon did not try to score, and the Giants won 3-2.

Photo: Matt Slocum / Associated Press

K.C.’s great what-if: Should Gordon have been sent?

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There was a lesson on the face and in the voice of that barista: The World Series lives forever.

The heroes are heroes forever, and the mistakes, lapses and squandered opportunities keep on keeping on. Regrets have the half-life of uranium.

The mistakes, sins, goofs and blunders of the winners are forgotten and absolved instantly, or, even better, relegated to the status of amusing footnotes in the Book of Win.

So spare a good thought for the good folks in Kansas City, who will wear that loss forever. And enjoy the title all the more, realizing the difference between winning and losing was razor thin and yet wider than the Grand Canyon.

I watched carefully to make sure the guy didn’t drip tears in my coffee.